If You Desire

Guest Author - Elizabeth Darrach

Hello, and welcome back! I'm enjoying our gorgeous spring weather here and trying to decide when I'm going to be allowed to do garden work. Next week, I suppose, which means I should do a lot of reading this week to get ahead of the game, review-wise. And, because my work schedule has changed already for the week, I've got the first three reviews ready to go tonight, with three new historicals.

Tempting the Prince (Zebra) by Patricia Grasso is up first. Belle Flambeau is all set to marry the man of her dreams, well, a man, anyway, despite his despicable mother. Then someone attacks her, leaving her face scarred and Belle determined to hide away her ugliness. Prince Mikhail Kazanov needs a wife to care for his young daughter, and none of the debutants after his title and fortune will do. But Belle is perfect, especially with her scar. This one is very busy, filled with lots of secondary characters so you really need a scoresheet to keep track of who's who. Too busy for me, I'm afraid. It was cute, but not a keeper. The emotions just scratched the surface here, and the conflict is pretty predictable.

The Perils of Pursuing a Prince (Pocket Star) by Julia London is next. Lady Greer Fairchild is traveling with no chaperone into the Welsh countryside to demand her inheritance from the Prince of Powys. Rhodrick Glendower is unaccustomed to having guests, though the man Greer has brought along is decidedly unwelcome in Rhodrick's home. Greer and Rhodrick bicker and argue from the first, and are quite unpleasant to one another, which made it especially difficult for me to believe they were falling in love. The pace of this one is quite slow, which also didn't encourage me to read faster to see how this was going to work out. By about halfway through, I didn't care. But I kept slogging on, though Greer's sudden change of heart about trusting Rhodrick was too late and too unbelievable for me. I'm afraid I just didn't like this one.

If You Desire (Pocket) by Kresley Cole is next. Hugh MacCarrick isn't thrilled about coming back home, especially not to this new job, but Jane Weyland is in danger, and Hugh can't let her be killed, even if he can't share his emotions with her. Jane isn't any happier to be stuck with Hugh, let along married to him, even if it is temporary, but he's not the same boy she fell in love with. This is a man she could come to love all over again if she let herself. This one is a quick read, though Hugh's worry over the family curse seems exaggerated to me. I liked this one better than the previous two, but I didn't love it enough to call it a keeper. It's earned three and a half of Cupid's five arrows.